George R.R. Martin posted an excerpt from his Game of Thrones companion book The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the World of Game of Thrones on his website yesterday, along with this image of what many industry experts are referring to as “a big ol’ ding dang dragon.”

The excerpt gives some background for fans of Daenerys Targaryen, setting the stage for the dragon-aided conquest of Westeros by her ancestor Aegon I Targaryen. But also intriguing is the accompanying illustration, which shows Aegon atop his dragon Balerion the Black Dread. Martin confirmed to EW the image accurately represents his vision for what a fully grown dragon will look like.

Wow, I guess now that we know what a fully grown version looks like in the creator’s mind, we no longer have to … [puts on sunglasses] … imagine drago-oh God, what am I doing? Did I really almost dust off a five-year-old meme to make that terrible joke? Jesus. And where the hell were you guys on that one? WHY DIDN’T ANY OF YOU TRY TO STOP ME? I thought we were in this together. I mean, sheesh, guys. Sheesh. We should all be disappointed in ourselves.

Dany mounts Drogon and heads into battle against the Lords of Westeros. Drogon suffers a heart attack and falls out of the sky, killing them both. Then a new character is introduced last minute to replace her.

@Max Colorado Technically, he’s correct. It’s stated in the books that the dragons will never stop growing if they are allowed to. However, I don’t believe we need attach so much significance to Martin saying “fully grown.”

I understand that words are hard, but GRRM didn’t say anywhere in the article nor on the excerpt that he released on his website that the image was a fully grown dragon. That was Entertainment Weekly paraphrasing him.

“A dragon never stops growing, Your Grace, so long as he has food and freedom.”- Ser Barristan Selmy

Maybe a book reader could explain something for me. The other week Lord Friend Zone told Deny that dragons can’t be tamed. But if that’s true, then how did her ancestors use them to defeat their enemies?

I thought that comment was supposed to represent the different mindsets of Jorah and Dany. Jorah is afraid and just doesn’t believe that a dragon can be tamed; he’s been pushing for an army from the start, while Dany is dreaming of flying in to conquer Westeros. I don’t think the dragons are completely “tame,” but they certainly were controlled enough to be manageable weapons of war.

I think the first question to ask would be, what the hell would Jorah know about taming dragons anyway? To him they were long extinct mythical beasts before meeting Dany and her eggs.

Beyond that I think it’s a simple common sense observation, both from the character’s viewpoint and the writers. Dragons are apex predators in their world after all and quite frankly, if one decides to do something, who’s gonna stop it?

The books never elaborated on how exactly the Targaryens controlled them, if they had some sort of bond, magical power or whatever.

The books exactly explained it. Magic. Keep in mind magic didn’t exist while the dragons were dead and was re-ignited by the dragons being born…that is probably the most misunderstood thing about this entire series whether it be book or show. The Valyrians learned the spells and songs needed to control them. How exactly Dany will use that knowledge is pretty well spelled out in the books if you can read between the lines. But since there are probably tons of non-book readers looking at this comment I won’t go into it. Book readers themselves might not even get it.

Dany is one of my favourit characters…..i dunno wat would happen to her…..the writer beinh none other than GRRM…..but yeah i wd like to hav her on d iron throne….n before that i would like to her to learn how to tame them,,,,,n yeah some glimpses how d ancient Targarians did it……some more ancient magic unleashed ……n d dragons growing more n more n more fierce, powerful.n much,much bigger…powerful enough to exterminate d whole Lannister Army on their own….n of course …fighting d terrible army of white walkers……n what about Dany n Snow falling in love with each other finally…..i know that is totally insane……but its GOT…d most unpredictable series ever……